Detention before the protest began

Abhijeet Dipke, leader of the Cockroach Janta party (CJP) youth movement, was detained on Friday as authorities cracked down on fresh anti-government protests in the Indian capital. He had called a demonstration for Friday evening in central Delhi and urged supporters to come out and hold up the Indian flag.

Police deployed in large numbers to the planned site, a park in a busy commercial centre of central Delhi, and sent Dipke a notice instructing him to call off the protest. The Delhi local authority also shut the park down. When he refused, officers detained him en route just as people began to assemble.

Why the protests target the election commissioner

The Cockroach movement began in May as online satire and has grown into one of the most substantial challenges to the Modi government over its 12-year rule. Over the past month, CJP supporters, student groups and opposition parties have protested across India's biggest cities.

Their demands centre on the electoral rolls controversy:

• Protesters are calling for the resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
• According to the accusations, a roll revision Kumar oversaw would benefit the ruling Narendra Modi government, and 130m names would be deleted under it.
• The election commission and Modi's Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) deny the claims.

Arrests that triggered Friday's call

Friday's protest was called after two of Dipke's fellow CJP leaders, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were arrested and jailed. They were sentenced to five days in jail this week for jumping police barricades and holding a brief protest, including waving the Indian flag, at a site in Delhi that police had restricted for demonstrations.

At a press conference on Thursday, Dipke condemned what he called repressive attempts to silence the CJP movement and urged supporters to come out and show Narendra Modi that they are not afraid. He told them: "If waving the Indian national flag lands you in jail, we are ready."

Protests continue and BJP responds

Authorities, particularly in Delhi, have responded to weeks of demonstrations with bans on public gatherings, the deployment of tens of thousands of police and the detention of thousands last weekend. On Friday, Neha Bora, a student leader who has become a figurehead of the protests, was also detained as she began a march in central Delhi.

Despite the detentions, about 2,000 protesters still gathered and unfurled flags at Connaught Place in Delhi, and smaller protests were also held on Friday in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Patna.

Sanna, a 23-year-old protester, said the police crackdown on peaceful protests in recent weeks showed India was "on a pathway to dictatorship under the Modi government". She said those taking part only wanted to hold up the Indian flag peacefully, yet were being treated as criminals rather than citizens exercising their democratic rights. She added: "Gyanesh Kumar must resign, and no matter what the police do, detaining us or crushing our skulls, we still won't stop protesting until he is gone."

The BJP has claimed the Cockroach movement and the political opposition alliance are holding protests to cause anarchy in the country. The party's national spokesperson, Sambit Patra, said: "Their sole intention is to stage a coup in the country."

In Mumbai, Bollywood actor Imran Khan was detained by police while attending a demonstration last weekend and given a notice to leave the country. Khan, who holds a US passport, was told to leave by the end of the month and is challenging the order in the courts.